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Abstract

A review is presented of some of the principal techniques of laser cooling and trapping that have been developed during the past 20 years. Its approach is primarily experimental, but its quantitative descriptions are consistent in notation with most of the theoretical literature. It begins with a simplified introduction to optical forces on atoms, including both cooling and trapping. Then its three main sections discuss its three selected features, (1) quantization of atomic motion, (2) effects of the multilevel structure of atoms, and (3) the effects of polychromatic light. Each of these features is an expansion in a different direction from the simplest model of a classical, two-level atom moving in a monochromatic laser field.

References

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a The stopping length Lmin
and time tmin
are minimum values. The oven temperature Toven
that determines the peak velocity is chosen to give a vapor pressure of 1 Torr. Special cases are H at 1000 K and He in the metastable triplet state, for which two rows are shown: one for a 4-K source and another for the typical discharge temperature.

a The stopping length Lmin
and time tmin
are minimum values. The oven temperature Toven
that determines the peak velocity is chosen to give a vapor pressure of 1 Torr. Special cases are H at 1000 K and He in the metastable triplet state, for which two rows are shown: one for a 4-K source and another for the typical discharge temperature.